High Court judge sits for the last time

William Gummow
will leave the High Court today as an intellectual leader of the judiciary who has earned an international reputation, Chief Justice
Robert French
said this week.

“As all who have read his judgments know, Justice Gummow’s work as a justice of the High Court for 17½ years has been marked by deep thought and consideration of the issues informed by that learning and scholarship which he brought with him on his appointment," Chief Justice French said. “It was a learning and scholarship which was rooted in an understanding of legal history and a degree of scepticism about grand organising theories and top-down reasoning."

Justice Gummow was appointed by Labor prime minister
Paul Keating
in April 1995, after serving more than eight years on the Federal Court.

He was farewelled at the High Court in Canberra on Wednesday, the last occasion he would sit with the full bench, before an audience that included federal Attorney-General
Nicola Roxon
. Chief Justice French noted his colleague was a prolific judgment writer.

“His generosity of spirit also led him to shoulder a considerable share of the burden of judgment writing and to do so in a way that often elicited the agreement of a majority of his colleagues," he said. “His Honour has been the most collegial of colleagues in the judicial work of the court and also in its administration and other extra-curial duties."

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Justice Gummow will sit for the last time today in Sydney to hear special leave applications, coinciding with the publication of the court’s reasons for striking down major tobacco companies’ attempt to defeat the federal government’s plain packaging laws.

His replacement,
Stephen Gageler
, SC, will be sworn in on Tuesday.

Chief Justice French said Justice Gummow would be missed and had been known for his “sharp, incisive and often humorous conversation".

“We know that his retirement will not be restful," he said. “We wish him well in it."